If You Still Hate Metallica For ‘Load’ And ‘Reload,’ Here’s Why You Need To Reconsider

When considering the legacy of Metallica, pretty much everyone agrees that their first five albums (Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, … And Justice for All, and Metallica/The Black Album) are all-time heavy metal classics. After that, however, it gets a bit muddled. In 1996, Metallica released Load, and the sequel (in name anyway) the following year, Reload. While these albums certainly have their admirers, they’re nowhere near as beloved as the albums that preceded them. Opinions were so intense at the time of the albums’ releases that some long-term fan decided to give up on Metallica.

On a recent episode of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show, guitarist Kirk Hammett was asked to rank Metallica’s albums from best to worst. At the very bottom of the spectrum, he put Load. That’s right, he thinks it’s even worse than St. Anger! If that’s not a strong condemnation, I don’t know what is. Of course, for all of its glaring flaws (THAT DAMN SNARE DRUM!), St. Anger is a thrash metal record in the vein of Metallica’s classics. The same cannot be said for Load or Reload.

When considering why these albums are so reviled by Metallica fans (and Kirk Hammett), that might be our answer. The problem isn’t that the albums are bad, it’s how far they drifted from Metallica’s thrash roots. The Black Album wasn’t as thrashy as previous Metallica releases, but it was still undeniably metal from start to finish. The same cannot be said for Load and Reload, on which the band tried their hand at several other genres. (The band’s softened sound was personified when they cut their long hair for Load, which also angered many long-term fans.)

Consider the single “Hero of the Day,” which got quite a bit of radio airplay upon its release. It’s a mid-tempo number, and it’s tamer than any previous Metallica single. It’s a perfectly fine song, but it’s not exactly the kind of thing you headbang to. Elsewhere, the band experiments with southern rock on “Ronnie,” which has one of Kirk Hammett’s more underrated riffs, but it never turns into a full metal blast.